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Comment by newobj | Hacker News Reader

Excited for more research in gut health.

I know HN hates to entertain any lay science, but I wonder if scraping my tongue, as I do with a copper scraper, is good or bad for your oral biome?

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FWIW, the reason I use a copper scraper is simply that copper, as I understand it, has antimicrobial properties, and consequently I would be able to get by with a less thorough cleaning of the scraper than something plastic or wood that's not single-use. I basically rinse it under heavy water and give it a rub with my thumb.

My wife and I can both objectively report that bad breath has gone WAY down with the scraper. There's almost no morning breath now, as a matter of fact, with a scrape before bed.

Dentists (ones I have) usually recommend brushing your tongue as part of your tooth brushing routine. This helps prevent bad breath I think, which is correlated with oral hygiene.

in the morning, even scraping with your hand is good since you're removing the dead stuff thats accumulated on your tongue during sleep. eating this stuff has no nutritional value and is considered a 'toxin' in yogic traditions.

lot of those online sites are just trying to 'sell something' to make a living so they mandate you 'need' a metallic scraper.

Below is an interesting bit of research which gets quite close to tackling your curiosity, or at least stimulating it. It specifically concerns oral hygiene and blood pressure, with a focus on nitric oxide. Tongue scraping seems beneficial, though there's no mention of copper. However, chlorhexidine (mouthwash ingredient) seems a disruptor of NO and may contribute to higher BP. I need to read the article myself, but a brief skim left a big impression.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7589924/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6406172/

Edit: I deleted and reposted this comment because I found the article was abridged and might not be the one I remember. I think I've got it right this time, but if not, follow the "full text links". Should be interesting either way.

I found that my bad breath was the result of eating highly processed food and wheat based products, once i stopped eating these, my bad breath vanished.

No tongue scraping or brushing required.

Probably!

Indubitably!

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